Persuasive Essay On Sectarian Prayer

Religion is one of the most controversial issues in society today. The concern of allowing prayer in schools is an on-going debate and has resulted in numerous lawsuits. Religious school clubs, after school activities, curriculums, and moments of silence during school are just a few of the court cases that judges have administered. People in favor of prayer in schools believe that their children can only learn certain values through religious practice. On the other hand, an individual against religious practice in schools views this issue as an infringement on his or her children’s rights as Americans.

The first clause of the first amendment to the United States Constitution reads, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof” (“First Amendment” 1). In Santa Fe, Texas, a student “chaplain” was elected by his or her classmates to give pre-game prayers at high school home football games over the school’s public address system. Two mothers sued, arguing that these prayers were an endorsement of religion, which violated the Establishment Clause of the first amendment. The school district countered that the pre-game invocations were a long-standing tradition in Texas communities, and because the prayer came from a student, it was

Imagine a world in disorder, shattered, wandering, and fighting. Imagine people who are oblivious and unaccompanied by lessons to guide them. Imagine a population missing love, unoccupied, and lacking motive. This is the image of a world without the gift of belief and faith. Thanks to this wonderful Amendment, all sorts of religious practices have taken root in our country which is a country whose society is built on freedom. While all our freedoms are picturesque, I believe that the highest standing of them is freedom of religion. As stated in the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, freedom of religion averts our government from compelling citizens to practice any single kind of religion. Thanks to this marvelous

School prayer is a very controversial issue in today’s society. The issue of school prayer is about whether the public school systems should let the students pray, at the start of the school day, as a class. The issue of school prayer began in the late sixteenth century when people in England did not approve of the way one religion was forced upon them, so the Puritans, known as the Pilgrims decided to come to the colonies. Even in the colonies the Pilgrims had problems with religion they had to sometimes resort to highly creative strategies in order to pray. When people were caught having a secret service they would have to face the consequences that the law enforced, whether it was going

Supreme Court, my office cannot shrink from a case or stand mute because the case is controversial. It’s important for Indiana to weigh in on the upcoming Supreme Court case of Galloway v. the Town of Greece, New York, because the Indiana House of Representatives was subjected to a similar lawsuit in recent years. Municipal and state officials face uncertainty when deciding whether to start legislative meetings with prayer, and the Supreme Court could bring an end to that confusion.

Town of Greece, New York v. Susan Galloway was a Supreme Court case that posed the question of whether or not the town of Greece should be allowed to open their board meetings with voluntary prayer that was almost always Christian prayer. The defendant in this case was the town of Greece, which is located in the state of New York and has a population of 94,000 people (opinion p.1). In 1999, under new leadership, the town of Greece made the transition from opening each town board meeting with a moment of silence to opening with a prayer (opinion p.1). The opinion states that the prayer was supposed to, “place town members in a solemn and deliberative state of mind, invoke divine guidance in town affairs, and follow a tradition practiced by Congress and dozens of other state legislatures (opinion p.2).” The prayer was given each month by an unpaid volunteer clergyman. After this person gave the prayer they were then named the “chaplain for the month” (opinion p.2). Anyone could volunteer to be a chaplain no matter what religion they practiced or even if they practiced no religion at all (opinion p.2). However, almost every single chaplain was Christian (opinion p.2). One very important fact about the case is that the town of Greece did not provide any guidelines or suggestions about what the prayers should include. In fact, they didn’t even read the prayers beforehand because they believed that would be impeding the chaplains’ first amendment right (opinion p.2). This meant

Even though public schools today are without school prayer, most schools have replaced prayer, with a "Silent moment of reflection." Also, the assumption if there is a God or not is a big question as well. I think prayer should be re-instated into schools, because children should be able to express religion freely. I also feel that lack of discipline; youth pregnancy, dropouts, and violence in schools are other issues that can be more controllable if there were religious classes and school prayer.

For centuries, the debate has existed whether or not to allow prayer in public schools. Many Americans feel it is not right of the schools to teach religion. With all the diversity associated with the United States, public schools cannot select one standard religion to practice, due to the cultural and religious differences in the country. Not only are schools the storm center of controversy involving religious differences, they are the principal institution charged with transmitting the identity and mission of the United States from one generation to the next. If we fail in our school policies and classrooms to model and to teach how to live with differences, we endanger our experiment in religious liberty and our

Theme in “Defender of the Faith” can be interpreted in many varying ways, some of which are life-long lessons and others to the relation between faith and the individual.

There is a question as to whether in regards to prayers being allowed if the majority opinion written by Justice Kennedy of Justice Kagan in the dissent more accurately characterize the Town of Greece meetings as being similar or dissimilar from the legislative sessions in Marsh. Justice Kennedy writes in the majority opinion in the case Town of Greece, New York, Petitioner v. Susan Galloway, et al that the District Court rejected the idea that there is a First Amendment requirement for prayers in town meetings to be nonsectarian. Justice Kennedy states “Marsh v. Chambers, 463 U.S. 783, which permitted prayer in state legislatures by a chaplain paid from the public purse, so long as the prayer opportunity was not "exploited to proselytize or advance any one, or to disparage any other, faith or belief, " id., at 794-795”.

In the past couple of decades the rise in non-denominational churches has been increasing greatly and are said to be the second largest group of Protestants (Moore, 2011). It is said that most that break off and become apart of this fast growing belief come from a protestant upbringing. The study shows that more people are determining on where to worship by how they like the nursery, if the worship music is good, is it close to home, rather than I am a Catholic I need to go to a Catholic Church. As of 2010, four percent of Americans fall into this non-denominational group (Thumma, 2010).

There is only one way to god and that is threw Jesus Christ. We have to go through Jesus because we are sinners and sin cannot be in God’s presence. Sin is falling short of Gods glory and since we all fall short we need Jesus to bring us back. To have Jesus we must accept him.

The Supreme Court has just received Santa Fe v the people, in this case the students was banned from saying a prayer at a foot ball game . The constitution protects the right to free speech. Therefore, there is no reason for this case to have come up in the first place. If someone does not want to hear a prayer, they do not have to listen to it. If I were the judge I would rule that banning prayer at school events is unconstitutional.

Religion was discovered back in 2000 BC and is considered to be a trait common to cultures worldwide to this day. Some use religion as a way to cope, to connect, but few could use religion as a weapon against others. Since religion began, over 195,035,000 lives have been lost in tragedies brought on in the name of faith. Regardless of the brutality religion has created, it has also caused others to come together in order to speak out. As a result of religions regression in society, humans are able to progress for the sake of defending human rights.

Imagine a world in which you are prohibited from traveling to another country, even though you are guaranteed the basic right to practice your religion. Remember how over fifteen years ago, people that shared nothing but your religion committed acts of terrorism, and people still hold you responsible. Picture an era where you and your people were persecuted, but now reciprocators of the oppressors are marching freely without a second thought. You can stop imagining now. Because this is the world we live in. A society of religious intolerance. It is defined as, “not respecting the fundamental human right of other people to hold religious beliefs that are different from your own” (“Religious Intolerance Introduction”). Around the world in six predominantly Muslim countries, citizens are forbidden from coming to America because of an executive order issued by the US. Likewise, on September 11th, 2001, a group of Muslim terrorists hijacked a plane, killing thousands. In present day, people only connected to them by their religion are still being judged for actions they didn’t perform. Another situation in which bigotry occurred was in World War II. The Nazi Party attempted to gain control of many European and Asian countries, all the while trying to rid the world of races and religions they saw as inferior. Now the Neo-Nazis have the right to march freely and spread their hateful messages. Religious intolerance is a pressing issue, causing harrassment, inequality, violence, and